AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
April 3, 2016
Rory Callinan
Investigative journalist
The Catholic Church’s insurance company, which is keeping secret an archive of clergy child abuse records, had a long-standing director who allegedly failed to report a paedophile priest.
Last week, Fairfax revealed Catholic Church Insurance Limited , which provides insurance cover to the church, had amassed hundreds of files on paedophile clergy.
But lawyers for victims of the paedophiles say they are struggling to get access to the documents, which could prove vital to obtaining compensation, bringing perpetrators to justice and exposing cover-ups.
It has now emerged that up until September last year, one of the directors of CCI was Father Brian Lucas, a senior clergyman who has been criticised over his handling of child abuse complaints involving notorious priest Denis McAlinden in NSW in the 1990s.
McAlinden was an Irish priest who transferred to Australia in the late 1940s. He abused numerous children over decades but when complaints surfaced in the 1970s, top-level clergy transferred him to other parishes without warning and despite him making admissions.
He spent most of his time in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in NSW but was briefly transferred to Western Australia and to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea after complainants came forward.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.